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He seriously had the vocal approach of the taunting Frenchman in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." Completely hysterical... And yet, by the end I wanted more of it, as it was the most unintentionally funny thing I had heard in a long, long time. You just don't get that level of humor out of your sports announcers. I almost can't wait for the return leg just to heard the PBP guy do his thing. It was amazing.

Really hoping Iceland can pull off a result. I think Romania is pretty well screwed, and France with them. Sweden is down, but they're at home next so that should help. Judging by the way people are talking about Iceland's play, I think they have a chance against Croatia.

Damn. Senegal got a good free kick that pinged around the six-yard box in the 91st minute, but ultimately the keeper knocked it out for a corner. Cote d'Ivoire counter off the corner 3-on-2 and Salomon Kalou finishes calmly to put the match away.

Jozy, Bradley, & Aron Johannson looked the best out there in that miserable game against Scotland yesterday. Central defense is still worrisome. Cameron can hold his own but Omar Gonzalez still looks awkward out there. I think I'm most comfortable with a Besler - Cameron pairing right now.

Pretty weak effort otherwise. Klestjan looked completely lost (in fairness, he was playing a new position). Jones was at half speed, Bedoya was invisible on offense, Johnson was invisible entirely. Agreed on Omar. He is good in the air, but his positioning, footwork, and passing are weak.

And related, Simon Gleave on the problems with the UEFA qualifying system, which itself is still way better than CAF's.

There are real problems with using the terrible ranking systems, certainly, and if France is eliminated there is a case to be made that they were particularly unlucky. But given what happened with their qualification in 2010, my heart is not going to be very broken about their loss.

And while the CAF system is totally insane in the degree that it bends over backward to make it hard for the genuine powers to qualify, I do think there is SOMETHING to the idea of a system that 'punishes' the moderately-good-but-not-top-level teams in a conference. If France misses out because they're 'really' the sixth or seventh best team, that's not the end of the world by any means.

If the system were regularly ejecting teams that were clearly among the very best (as the CAF system threatens to do), it would be cause for concern. This...meh.

And while the CAF system is totally insane in the degree that it bends over backward to make it hard for the genuine powers to qualify, I do think there is SOMETHING to the idea of a system that 'punishes' the moderately-good-but-not-top-level teams in a conference. If France misses out because they're 'really' the sixth or seventh best team, that's not the end of the world by any means.

That's the thing. Of the 9 group winners, I would have only picked France over 2 of them: Switzerland and Bosnia. And neither of them would be without a shout imo. France just aren't that good right now, and if you can't win a 2 legged tie against the Ukraine, then you don't really deserve to go.

I mean, I am of the opinion, that FIFA gives too many spots to cupcake confederations. But once the number is set, I am not sure how UEFA can structure their system much fairer than it is right now. It's easy to scream for dairer seeding... but in practice that is a really hard thing to do, and somebody is always going to feel they deserved better.

Series of trades for the Seattle Reign: about a week ago, they sent Amy Rodriguez to FCKC for Kristen Mewis and now they've followed it up by sending Mewis, Michelle Betos, a 2015 1st round draft pick and a 2015 2nd rounder to Boston for Sydney Leroux. So Leroux immediately becomes the focal point of the Reign attack - pretty good moves by the Reign is my first reaction.

In other shocking news, Lyonnais areout of the women's Champion's League, which is massive, given how, frankly, good they are.

Just to add a little color to Arjun's report on the WCL, OL went out on a dubious penalty and then the coach went a little nuts (e.g., he made Pinoe play a reserve game because she failed to score in the CL).

That's a pretty spectacular trade. Mewis is very good as a midfielder (not as a defender, where she's played for the NT), and the loss of Leroux will be huge for Boston. I don't know the college talent well enough to judge the value of the draft picks, but I like this trade for Seattle. It certainly solves their biggest problem.

Rodriguez, I think, will do well at KC. Her goal tally on the NT was always disappointing, but I think she can succeed at the club level. Plus, KC can give her a ton of good service.

Forgot to add that Boston's willingness to make the trade might be explained by rumors that Christen Press is coming back to the NWSL (from Sweden). If Boston expects to get her, then it's probably a good trade from their perspective too.

LeBron has a minor ownership stake in LFC. It was enough to send the SoS clowns into a tizzy at the time. Because all the boyos down at the pub who haven't actually watched a match in years should own the club for a fiver.

LeBron went on to say how much his sons love the sport and that he follows the game. He could have been blowing smoke but I think he was sincere. He has gone out of his way to wear LFC gear in the past and has visited the club.

The two sports I follow the most, soccer and baseball tend to be dismissed in American sports media and culture as boring/out of touch. It was jarring but pleasant to hear someone like LeBron make such positive comments. I don't really follow the NBA much any more but Magic has been a boon for baseball and perhaps LeBron can do something similar for soccer. The NBA seems to be the most popular pro league with the kids I coach. It is a positive sign.

A lot has been said about the city of Miami's affinity (or lack thereof) for their sports teams. If Beckham wasn't around, would the MLS put a team in a city where there are so many alternatives for entertainment? I know Miami is also the unofficial capital of Latin American immigrants, but they're mostly from the Caribbean where soccer isn't high on their list of sports.

If Beckham wasn't around, would the MLS put a team in a city where there are so many alternatives for entertainment?

I don't think they would. Golden Balls wants to be glamorous, though, and New York and LA are already taken. San Antonio and San Diego, not to mention Minneapolis seem like better long term bets. Of course, stadium situations have a big say in how this stuff works out, too. (Orlando and Atlanta seem to be on the verge of joining NYCFC as the other expansion teams.)

I don't know enough about the women's game to judge whether this was a good or bad trade for them, though.

If they do get Press, then I'd say Boston did very well on the trade. If they don't, then we won't know for sure until the 2015 draft, but it's unlikely they could replace Leroux's goals with a draft pick.

France with wholesale team changes: Varane and Sakho into the centre of defence, Cabaye on for Nasri, Valbuena on for Remy, Benzema on for Giroud (it's like they're expunging the Arsenal from their last lineup!). They're really putting on the pressure in the opening few minutes - have had a number of potential chances within the first four mins.

France playing with serious pace and intensity here. Pogba's pushed up and is finding a lot of space and Valbuena's movement (unsurprisingly) is great. Couple of close calls for Ukraine since the goal: Benzema buried one which was called offside (on the replay he was clearly onside) and Valbuena hit one which was well saved by Pyatov. Ukraine need some ball possession, to slow down the pace, and to calm the crowd a bit. They're getting overwhelmed.

And it's 2-0! Ball bouncing around in box, shot deflections/blocks, and Benzema slams it home. Rather humourously, this time he actually *was* offside, but the flag stayed down.

Holy crap! I saw some of the first half of that game and I thought the ref was letting Algeria get away with a lot of physical play right off the bat. I wonder if all the whining Algeria did after the first leg intimidated the referee. Supposedly the atmosphere leading up to the game was so toxic taht Burkina Faso elected not to distribute their allocation of tickets for away supporters.

Wow. Obviously the runs have been brilliant (and the defending a little bit not there), but the finishing from Ronaldo really should be noted here. Each of those was a good chance, but 3-for-3 is a ridiculous performance. #######.

France, by talent, are close to a real WC contender. I am (homer alert) a humongous Lloris fan, I think there are exceptionally few keepers in the world his equal. With Sakho and Varane in front of him, plus Matuidi in central midfield, that's among the best defensive spines in the world. Free Pogba and Ribery to maraud, play a right-winger who will actually defend, unlike Remy, and that's one heckuva team. If either Giroud or Benzema brings his finishing boots, that's a contender.

I think France is worth putting some money on. I figure they are going to be undervalued by the the public. They could crash out horribly like the last two major championships but talent-wise they have enough to make a deep run.

I would imagine Brazil is the favorite. Spain is close and some would say should still be favorite. Then you have Germany and Argentina.

As a Colombian, I can assure you it is not. At least not right now. They don't have enough quality at the back and at the helm. The coach keeps letting the heart of the team on the bench. Save yourself the money.

As a Colombian, I can assure you it is not. At least not right now. They don't have enough quality at the back and at the helm. The coach keeps letting the heart of the team on the bench. Save yourself the money.

I'm probably irrationally optimistic about Colombia because I was there for the U-20 world cup and have had a soft spot for Rodríguez and Muriel ever since. The defense isn't wonderful, it's true, but Ospina isn't that bad and Zapata is pretty competent.

Zapata should not be starting in my opinion. There are better options. Ospina is adequate. The main problem we have is the coach. He started doing the right things but he has stopped. Now he sets up the team to counterattack, which is not what Colombians are used to. We need a classic number 10 because that's how every Colombian kid grows up playing with. I was really optimistic about 6-8 months ago, not anymore.

Against parked buses in the world cup or real counterattacking teams like Chile and Uruguay we are going to get murdered. Last time Chile played in Barranquilla about a month or 2 ago he made that tactical mistake and we ended up going 3-nil down in the first half. To his credit he corrected and put Macnelly Torres on and the team drew level. But he did not seem to learn anything from that because he has stuck with the same starting lineup. Next time we will not be able to overcome those kind of deficits.

So the wrong team (from my subjective position) won basically every playoff game around the world.

I'm glad to see Mexico eventually make it, and I suppose my anger at Uruguay from 2010 doesn't REALLY mean I wanted Jordan at the Finals. I was neutral on Ivory Coast and Ghana, and had moderate preferences for Tunisia, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso. And they all lost. All the European ones went opposite what I hoped.

Meh.

But in other news: holy cow, Gibraltar! That's their first official match since they got accepted to UEFA, right? Wow.

It blows my mind that a place with 30,000 people has 24 football teams in three tiers. Huh?